The Banking Standards Board (BSB) has today published a paper outlining eight situational factors that affect employee wellbeing and resilience at work.
The paper summarises relevant research and discourse on the topic and provides a basis for practical steps that organisations can take to improve the wellbeing and resilience of their employees.
Helen Reeve Morris, Director, Policy, Research and Strategy at the BSB, said: ‘This investigation of the available research suggests eight situational factors that practitioners – both within the banking sector and outside it – may find useful when considering how most effectively to promote employee wellbeing and resilience. The wellbeing and resilience of employees is a key area of focus for the BSB. This is because, aside from employee wellbeing being a good thing to care about in and of itself, it is also linked to better business outcomes and, crucially, better outcomes for customers and the wider society.’
Despite an increased emphasis on wellbeing and resilience within the banking sector, it remains a key area of concern. In 2017 the two BSB survey questions relating to individuals’ wellbeing were among the lowest scoring areas of the Survey; 44 per cent of those who took part in the BSB Assessment said they often felt under excessive pressure to perform at work and over a quarter agreed with the statement: ‘working in my organisation has a negative impact on my health and wellbeing’.
To better understand the BSB’s survey findings, the BSB commissioned a review of academic literature relating to wellbeing in the workplace across different disciplines and sectors. This paper is therefore a summary of the review that builds on the evidence that we gather as part of the BSB Assessment.
Next month we will publish an in-depth analysis of our latest Assessment results in our 2019 Annual Review, which, for the first time, contained an additional question to look more deeply into the causes of poor wellbeing in the banking sector. The analysis of this data will build on the work we’ve published today and will provide further insights into which situational factors affect employee wellbeing most in UK banks and building societies.
